Fathers Day
by Crashrox92
Summary: Jack had always managed to get by Fathers Day without any fuss, but this time it was different and filled him with confusion and anger, Optimus confronts him. just a little something i quickly came up with it was stuck in my head all morning so forgive me :) Rated T because I'm always safe ;3


**A/N i know this is way off seeing how Fathers Day is on June 16th or September 1st depending where you live, but its my birthday today and this idea just popped into my head, see my Dad is currently working a 12 hour shift so he wasn't going to be there, he isn't known for affection but he has his moments like in the bathroom i noticed on the mirror he wrote 'Happy Birthday love Dad XxX' with a bar of soap by the way lmao XD but to me that alone meant a lot.**

**so if you've read my fics before you'll know that i am notorious for writing this kind of stuff :p not all the time but most of the time ;P**

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**Father's Day**

Jack got off Arcee as they came into base, she barely stopped as she wanted to move as quickly as possible he took his helmet off and harshly threw it across the floor, the bots watched him with wide optics, this wasn't exactly normal Jack behavior, there was this shadow that draped over his forehead as he made his way upstairs he entered the elevator and pushed the buttons with a clenched fist and like that he was gone.

needless to say you could hear a pin drop, "What, just happened?" Miko said dumbfounded.

"I haven't a clue; he's been acting this way since i picked him up from work." Arcee said generally concerned.

"Did he say anything?" Raf asked timidly.

She shook her head, "he just told me to drive, he was very cold in saying so. that was defiantly not the Jack i know." she added rubbing her arms as if she felt the cold, "Half way through our trip i tried to ask him the problem but he just scowled at me."

Miko and Raf looked at one another, "he, was acting strange today but not, angry like you just said." Raf said.

"Any idea what set off his change?" Ratchet ask from across the room, he got a series of confused looks as he just turned his back on them rolling his optics and grumbling about the constant stares he got for merely asking questions.

"I-I, think it's because it's Fathers day today." Raf spoke up.

"Fathers day?" Bulkhead questioned intrigued.

"Yeah where we celebrate our Fathers its like a er...Raf you say it." Miko said looking to the ceiling.

"Kind of like a moment between Father and Son or Daughter."

"And Jack doesn't have that." Miko finished.

Arcee looked to the other bots, "June, did say that his Father left them." she said but she didn't think anything of it, Jack rarely mentioned his Father and when she did mention it, he merely shrugged.

"You mean Jack didn't have a Sire?" Bulkhead blurted out in shock.

"Sire?" Miko scoffed, "what is Jacks Dad a king now?"

Ratchet scoffed himself from across the room, "Sire is our term for Father." He said.

"Oh, well anyway Jacks probably bummed out about it but...I haven't a clue why he's suddenly so angry." Miko said as she jumped of the couch, "Maybe he couldn't talk to Arcee because...well..." she then curved her hands around her hips posing slightly.

"Huh?" Bulkhead said thinking she had caught a disease that affected her behavior patterns.

"You know,_ a girl_" she said. "He needs a dude to talk to."

They remained silent as they just stared at the girl, Miko's hair drooped to how unenthusiastic they were, "don't all step forward at once soldiers." She huffed performing a mock salute. "Besides most of you guys all fail at being Father figures."

"Hey." Bulkhead said slightly huffing.

"No Bulk you got me all wrong, I mean you guys are too interesting to be Father figures, and Ratchet is more qualified to be a Grandparent then anything else." she said slyly.

"And will you never be qualified if you don't silence that noisemaker!" Ratchet barked.

Miko lightly scoffed, "Yeah right, anyway! I was only referring to Optimus."

"Why him?" Bulkhead asked out of curiosity.

Her arms drooped this time, "Oh come on, he gave Jack the Key to Vector Sigma because he was pretty impressed with his maturity, _yeah_ _I listened in._" She winked. "And although you guys can't see it Jack really does look up to him. I mean today he even got...well I promised not to say." she started scratching the back of her head, "Look, the big guy needs to see him okay?"

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Jack now being up top was kicking off stones off the rocky Cliffside, there was a card beside him on the floor, slightly dusted with dirt and was pretty big in size, _"why now?" _he thought frustrated then he clenched his fists as he kicked a big rock of this time then breathed as he stood beside Cliffjumper's memorial grave. "Why?" he said out loud holding his head "What am i feeling? I don't know **what **to feel, I-I don't even know if it was real, Ah, damn, damn, damn!"

Miko had practically shoved Optimus to go up top though it is not as though he protested, if Jack was in any kind of trouble or distress of course he would try to comfort him, as well as his Autobots and despite the fact the children had there own guardians, he still felt responsible for them also. "Jack." Optimus said claiming his attention.

Jacks first expression that Optimus managed to catch before it quickly went was that of anger and detest, Jack himself hid his face away.

Optimus had not seen him form such an expression before, panic, content, pleased, most of what he seemingly felt were not out of anger. "O-Oh hey Optimus, look I'm sorry about my attitude before, I just need some time to myself right now." he said with his back facing Optimus.

He stood silently as he typically tried some reverse physiology, "very well." He merely said turning around.

one step, two steps, "No wait." he called a little more 'needy' then he usually sounded, "I-I want to ask you something." He admitted.

"Of course Jack, what do you ask of me?"

He scratched his head awkwardly as he would usually do in these kind of situations, "If I...I mean, would you, that is to say if you did, but, would you leave your family?" he asked jumbling his words up.

Optimus tilted his head, "I have a Sparkmate, but no offspring, but if I did I would not." He said as Jack turned his gaze to the floor with that answered he was convinced that it must be him. "Jack? We know what occasion it is today." He said, this was the first he had heard that Jacks Father had left him and his Mother alone, and he has come to wonder why Jack never really had an outburst of rage before, he was mostly calm and would express his annoyance but nothing ever drastic.

"It's no big deal." He shrugged. "You know if anything it's just another money making occasion." He lightly forced a laugh.

"I think it is a 'big deal' to you." He said.

He then frowned intensely as he turned his back on him, "Just-Just, don't Optimus, not today."

Again he was avoiding the conversation, and he wanted to force some repressed anger out of him, "Then he must have had his reasons." he said, not appropriate but he has learned that repressed anger is never healthy.

And Jack wanted to defend his case as he whipped his body around giving the Primes feet a deathly stare, "you know, most nights when I was younger I'd always ask my Mom, 'hey Mom whens Daddy coming back?'...I think I realized that he was not coming back earlier then I **should have**." He said as he kicked another rock off the side of the cliff.

Optimus watched the boys posture as well as the stress and breathing levels he was emanating, "If you want to frustrate you anger, you can." He said lightly.

Jack bit his lip slightly as he turned again, "you know **what?**" he snapped clenching his fist to only sink into himself again as much as he wanted to he didn't want to give into that anger, not to anyone, "I saw him today." He instead said swallowing a lump in his throat as he looked at Optimus' feet again never really giving him eye contact, perhaps he was ashamed to, that he had something he wasn't exactly proud of, he then nodded a few times, "while I was on my shift, I-I didn't recognize him at first, but I said to him, 'welcome what can i get you?'" there was a slightly glaze over Jacks eyes as he kept that raw emotion inside, "he smiled at me and said 'nothing, **son**' a-and when he said that, I knew, I-I knew it was him and then there was that **pathetic, desperate **feeling to just go after him as he turned to leave again, for him to **leave, again**. I had reverted back to that small kid who chased his Father down the street as he pulled off in his car." He whacked a hand against the Cliffside as Optimus listened intently only focusing on him.

"But then i thought, why **did** he come back after ten **years **to say that?!" he spat. "just that? I don't know why he left, Mom never mentions it, a-and maybe she didn't because she didn't want me to judge him like that, but-but..." he was crumbling slowly but still he would not let it out.

"Jack..."

Jack raised his hand to stop him from speaking, "you know Optimus, Even though I didn't pursue him, I still feel that I had made the right decision, I mean who is he to come in say that and leave, who does that?! I-I, does he **feel **anything at all?" he then started to doubt himself as well, "B-But maybe i **did** make the wrong decision...I don't know!" he then walked over to the edge as he sat him down with his head in his hands, he was silent for at least a minute, "I always thought growing up that **I**had done something to drive him away, I even tried to teach myself things so that when he did come back he would-he would be...p-proud of me." Optimus sat himself besides Jack at that point.

Jack slightly turned his head to one side as he made straining sounds to hold back those tears he never had shown, even more so that Optimus was present, "Jack, it is alright." He encouraged.

"No!" he snapped, "I can't! Coming down every morning when I was little to hear my Mom crying into her coffee, I-I swore I'd be the man of the house, to look after her, to look after **me**!" he said swinging another fist on the ground as he gritted his teeth trying, so, **hard **not to fall to tears because of **him**.

"Boy." Optimus started sternly, "we are not returning back down until you release the years of weight that you have bared on your shoulders."

Jack slowly looked to him as he let some tears fall on command there was that stern voice of authority he wanted so **badly **to hear from his Father, instead of forcing himself to grow up faster and make those decisions for himself his whole life, "W-Why?" he said to him choking on his words, "Why didn't he w-want me?" he choked his throat raw.

and then Jacks head averted to the floor again, but Optimus wasn't going to let him sink back into himself again, he instead placed his thumb and index finger under Jacks chin as he forced his vision on him, "Jack, you have done nothing wrong, you are one of the most finest young humans I have ever seen so much, potential in." He said admirably as Jack couldn't let his eyes look at him as he tried to escape his staring optics, "Jackson Darby, do not dare hide from me." he said again, "you do not need to make him proud, because you have already made so many others proud of you, your friends, your Mother and me." He said.

"But I haven't...what you mean with the whole Vector Sigma thing?" he started shrugging to how unimportant his role was, he was merely the delivery boy, the vessel.

"No, i am proud of you in general, i trusted the key to you because i already **knew** you were capable of such a thing." He said optics glowing with how he spoke of him.

Jack wanted to scratch his head to avoid blushing instead but he was in a firm restraint and that outcome was inevitable, "O-Optimus, i..." He said as he looked to his side to the dusty card that he lay there before, reaching into his pocket he got a pen out and grabbed the card dusting off the dirt and trying to fix the dents that he had made, Optimus watched him intrigued as he tried to look over his shoulder he then turned back around as he scratched his head again, "I-I always get one every year, I-I don't know why I guess I was waiting for, someone who I thought deserved it...but then this year...a-and I know this is pretty dumb but I wanted to give this to you." He said.

Optimus was slightly hesitant in reaching for it but then plucked the card between his fingers; he looked at the cover that had an adult figure of a man holding a smaller figure in the air, a Father and his Son, he looked inside, it read 'Happy Fathers Day Optimus' it was a simple message but coming personally from Jack it meant much more.

"Thanks for, you know just being there." He said shrugging.

"Jack, if you are ever feeling troubled, know that you can always speak with me." He said lightly as Jack cleaned his face up of old tears and that shade it left under his eyes, "We are fortunate to have you here with us. I do not think I could see the base any other way." He added.

"After all these years, it was a quick hello and bye, I don't-I don't understand how he can just do that." Jack said shaking his head, he was as hurt as a child who had just discovered death.

"And we may never know why, however, it is only his loss, I do not know the man but he has made a huge error in leaving you and your Mother." He said as he stood up, "but, I gained." he added softly.

Jack brushed himself down as he followed Optimus' lead but stopped as he wondered, "What?" he asked, "what did you say?"

"And we may..."

"No, no, the last bit, you sounded quiet but..."

"We gained." He confirmed smiling for him.

"R-ight." He said but despite how sure Optimus sounded, he was still sure he said something different. "What are you and the other bots going to do now?" he asked as the two went onto the elevator.

"Well, all posts are currently covered if that is what you mean?" he said.

"Are you, uh, covering?" Jack asked.

"No, though I find it slightly concerning that I have 'time'." he said.

"Well do you want to, I don't know, share some of that time, with me?" he said and for once instead of scratching his head, merely placed his hands in his pockets.

Optimus smiled to himself looking to the front, "I would like that Jack."

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**A/N well anyway this was just something quick i put together so forgive the rushed feeling to it :S but i thought I'd upload this just before i go out and well, enjoy the night :)**

**again i am so notorious for these kinds of things, i love 'moments' :3 anyway see ya I'm outta here X3**


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